Pearl Harbor Japanese Aircraft Crash Sites,
Records, & Artifacts:
Part I
by James Lansdale

Introduction

I recently completed a ten-day trip (4 ~ 14 December 2006) to the Hawaiian
Islands in order to investigate the Pearl Harbor Japanese aircraft crash-sites,
records, and artifacts. While visiting the island of Kaua'i (east
of and adjacent to Ni'ihau) I met with local dive-masters and representatives
of the Robinson Family Sugar Plantation and conducted interviews with members
of the University of Hawaii Oceanography Department as well as the United
States Coast Guard marine survey team regarding the details of two alleged
Japanese Zero crash-sites within the area encompassed by the Kaulakahi
Channel between the islands of Ni’ihau and Kaua’i.

On the island of O’ahu I was able to meet with members and curators
of three museums that contain records of crash-sites and/or artifacts related
to Japanese aircraft downed during the attack on Pearl Harbor. I
was most impressed by the newly opened Pacific Aviation Museum aircraft
presentations. One outstanding display, recreates the Ni’ihau Island
crash-site of the HIRYU-based Zero fighter flown by Shigenori NISHIKAICHI.
It is complete and includes most of the actual remaining fragments from
this famous Zero fighter as they lay, until a few months ago, on Robinson
Family land! The Fort DeRussy Army Museum has records and several remains
of Aichi kanbaku that were downed during the attack. The Arizona
Memorial has records and artifacts on display, as well as in their archives,
of several different Japanese aircraft, including Aichi kanbaku and Nakajima
kanko.

This series of articles will present the facts and information gathered
during this study of several Japanese crash sites, records, and the aircraft
artifacts themselves that were recovered from those locales.

***

Nakajima Kanko Relic USAR 162

On display in the ARIZONA Memorial Museum is a piece from the lower wing
of a Nakajima Type 97 Carrier Attack-Bomber (kanko) based on the KAGA that
crashed during the attack on Pearl Harbor near a U.S. Navy hospital and
which became known as the “Hospital Kate.” ARIZONA Memorial
historian, Daniel MARTINEZ, believes it may have become the “most
souvenired” crash remains from the Japanese attack. It may
even be possible to match this fragment with the holes in the wing lower
surface pictured below!

When this relic was photographed under the lighting conditions within the
ARIZONA Memorial display, the olive-green area surrounding the hinomaru
appears more pale and green than the true color of this relic under natural
lighting conditions.

Historian Daniel MARTINEZ and ARIZONA Memorial Curator, Scott PAWLOWSKI
assisted in the relic color analyses conducted on the relics held by the
Memorial. The “Hospital Kate,” relic, or artifact “USAR
162,” has two colors that were examined and compared to JPMA 2005-C
color samples. The “olive-green” paint is a glossy
paint color that is a very close match to a color between JPMA C27-50D
and JPMA C27-60D (Munsell 7.5Y 5/2 ~ 7.5Y 6/2; approximately 7.5Y 5.5/2). The
hinomaru red is a glossy-red close to JPMA C05-40V (Munsell 5R 4/12). No
primer coat appears evident between the outer layer of paint and the natural
metal.

The history of relic “USAR 162” is contained in the following
placard:

It is almost certain that one of the two known Nakajima kanko main-data
plates in other collections was removed from the "Hospital Kate" and it
is very likely that this particular kanko, (one of the five lost from the
KAGA on 7 December 1941) is Nakajima S/N 9111!